


Look What You Made Me Do

by Burgie



Category: Star Stable Online
Genre: Gen, also warning for animal death, and blood ovbiously
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-17
Updated: 2017-10-17
Packaged: 2019-01-18 13:21:10
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,103
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12388896
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Burgie/pseuds/Burgie
Summary: Katja gets her revenge on Alex.





	Look What You Made Me Do

James had been having his nightmares again. He was angry at this rather than upset, however. Alex had promised him, pinky promised even, that his nightmares would stop now. He'd never see that dreadful white woman again, she'd said. Well, now he saw her every night. She lurked in his dreams, just out of the corner of his eye, and, when he saw her in his dreams, a pleasant dream could turn into a nightmare without any warning. Puppies running towards him suddenly morphed into ferocious beasts with snapping, slavering jaws and claws that tore up the ground. The money that rained around him gained razor sharp edges, or turned into razor blades, and he'd awaken with a scream.

But worse than the nightmares were the hallucinations. James started to see the white woman out of the corner of his eye, smirking at him. Often, he saw her on the tower above the disco, waving at him. Terrified, he'd asked the security guard to keep an eye out for her, and he had. But, even when James saw her standing in the middle of the disco floor, grinning with teeth that were too sharp, the security guard never saw. James was convinced that he was seeing an evil spirit, and called on the druids to cleanse the place and drive the evil spirit out. But she was still there. In his dreams, right in front of him, taunting him with her presence. He heard her voice sometimes, taunting 'little James' for jumping at shadows and crying in exhaustion at the nightmares.

"Wake up, little James," she whispered now, while James tossed and turned in the throes of a nightmare in his bed. "You might want to check on your stable." James woke up to screaming, though it wasn't just his own screaming that he heard this time. People outside were screaming, and the horses, and James flew out of bed, almost tripping over the tangled, sweat-soaked sheets. He put his glasses on before he left the inn, but, when he got outside, he wished that he hadn't put them on. Bile rose in his throat, and he vomited at the sight of a blonde woman with her torso torn open and her entrails spilling out, lying at the feet of the white woman.

The entire stable yard was covered in blood and dead bodies. Blood painted the ground, including one puddle that the white woman stood in. There were blood splatters on the walls, including a dead body that had probably once been a human draped over the small wall separating the stable from where James usually stood. The horses that had once been for sale all lay dead, though there was one still alive, emitting that horrific shrieking that seemed to be all that James could hear. The large gates to the fort, which were usually open, were now closed, bloody handprints smeared over them.

"Hello, James," said the white woman, her voice so sweet and a smile on her face despite the death and destruction piled around her. "Where is your sister?" James screamed, and Katja sighed. "Oh, James, you should know by now that that isn't an answer. Now, I'll ask you again." She laid a bloody hand on the side of James' face. "Where is your dear Alex now?"

Linda had been having visions for years now, and she usually managed to remain calm when she woke up from prophetic dreams of the future. But this time, terror gripped her as the green mist that preceded a vision cleared to show a chillingly familiar white woman. It looked so familiar, and she was transported back ten years to when she'd first received the chilling vision of Katja holding James hostage. Only this time, she held a severed head, one wearing a look of terror and a familiar set of thick, black-rimmed square glasses that had been repaired more often than the Harvest Counties bridge.

"Hello, Linda," said Katja, holding the head at arm's length so as not to get blood on her pure white clothes. Linda trembled in her sleep, unable to communicate with the vision. She moaned in terror, knowing that she had to stay in this vision or she'd miss out on some vital information. Last time, Katja had been in some dark place, but this time, she was in a place that Linda recognised from a childhood spent going to Alex's place for group homework sessions and assignments. "Tell dear Alex that I have her brother, and I want to see her. If she doesn't come, well." Katja looked over to a corner, and Linda's blood chilled as the bundle of rags there moved. "Her mother will call the police if she wakes up, and I can't have that. If she brings anyone with her, aside from her beloved Tin Can, I will make sure that her mother knows that her darling daughter is responsible for her death. Do hurry, now, I think she's waking up."

Linda made only one stop before she ran to see Alex, to empty the contents of her stomach into the toilet bowl, and then she woke Alex by slamming open her bedroom door.

"Linda, what is it, it's- what's wrong?" asked Alex, waking up instantly when she saw the paleness of Linda's face.

"Alex, you have to go home," said Linda. "Katja has your mother and James, and she's holding them hostage in your childhood home."

"Fuck," said Alex, quickly getting out of bed and throwing on her tunic and druid hat. She pulled her blue and white tipped hair out of her tunic, grabbed her rune wand from her dresser, and ran outside to the stables where Tin Can was already awake and being brought up to speed on the situation via Alex's mental bond with him.

"She said to come alone with Tin Can, or she'd kill your mother," said Linda, wishing that she could do more to help while Alex quickly tightened Tin Can's girth and fumbled with the reins.

"Why does she have to do this now?" said Alex, mounting Tin Can and trotting over to the gates leading from the winery. "I thought she'd get revenge afters he came back, but it's been ages."

"Maybe she was just waiting until she was stronger," said Linda.

As she rode hard towards Jorvik City, cursing Katja for making her ride rather than taking the bus, Alex was glad that Tin Can was the fastest pony on Jorvik. She wondered why Katja had decided to get her revenge now, rather than sooner, but mostly, she was just angry. How dare that bitch bring her family into this, and how dare she threaten her family? Alex gritted her teeth, lightning flickering in the fists that gripped the reins, and Tin Can gave a nicker of concern but galloped as fast as he could, knowing that his rider needed to get home five minutes ago. He tried to soothe her anger, knowing that it would make her reckless, but Alex would not be calmed. Could not be calmed. He'd never felt her so angry before, and he'd known her for years.

At last, Tin Can skidded to a hard stop outside the apartment building where Alex had grown up with her mother and brothers, and Alex jumped down out of the saddle, almost rolling her ankle as one foot got caught in the stirrups. But she was standing straight and fuming when she opened the door and stepped inside of the apartment. And then, she gagged at the strong stench of blood. She didn't have to follow her nose to find it, either, because it was everywhere. Painted up the walls, soaking into the carpet, even specks of it on the ceiling lights, where it smelled even worse. Alex only had to follow the footprints where blood had pooled.

She found her woman standing in the kitchen, holding her mother. Alex's heart stopped, and she trembled in fear and barely-supressed rage as she made eye contact with her terrified mother, who had her head pulled back by the hair, an already-bloody knife pressed to her bare throat.

"Hello, Alex," said Katja, her smile cruel and her voice a purr. "How lovely of you to finally join me. Where's your horse?"

"He's outside," said Alex. 

"I said to bring him with you," said Katja, her voice still light. "But oh well. I guess you don't care about your mother enough. You're right, Mrs Cloudmill, your daughter doesn't care about you. None of your children do. And why should they? You're just the idiot who got pregnant and then kept going back to the man who abused you. Pity."

"No! Mama, she's wrong, don't listen to her!" Alex screamed, lunging for the knife, but Katja pulled the knife neatly and yet oh so deeply across the woman's throat, then stepped back and let her fall. The tiniest drops of blood misted onto her boots as Alex's mother choked and struggled for breath, clutching at her throat, and Katja clicked her tongue in irritation.

"Nice job, now you've ruined my favourite boots," said Katja, looking down at them. "Those cost a fortune."

"Where's James?" asked Alex, looking up from where she cradled her mother's body. She was covered in blood now, the tips of her hair now coloured a temporary red. It brought Katja great joy to see the tears and the look of heartbreak on her face.

"Oh, didn't your little Moon friend tell you? He's dead," said Katja. "He wouldn't tell me where you were, but I knew an even better way to get you to come to me. You work best when you're getting revenge, Alex, that's your main motive." She said it so matter-of-factly that Alex screamed and lunged at her. But Katja only smirked and faded into shadow, reappearing in the doorway. "And now, because you are such a pain in the rump, I'm going to have to find your horse myself. And then I'll find your brothers and your friends."

"Why?" asked Alex, her voice a sob. "Why now?"

"Because you trapped me in Pandoria for a decade," said Katja, her voice finally taking on a darker tone. "And I didn't even have the benefit of a crystal like your friends did. Do you know what Pandoria does to Generals who are banished there?"

"It's only what you deserve," said Alex. "Especially after killing my family." She finally got up and drew her rune wand, leaving smears of her mother's blood on her tunic and wand. It sizzled and bubbled on the wand, making a disgusting stench that Katja wrinkled her nose at. Alex didn't notice it, however. Katja chuckled.

"Oh, Alex, do you really think a piece of wood is going to stop me?" asked Katja. "You really are stupid." Alex cast Soul Strike at her, but it blasted the wall of the living room instead, leaving a black scorch mark. 

Tin Can, to his credit, tried to be brave. He lowered his head, snorting at Katja and dragging his hoof along the ground. Katja laughed.

"What are you going to do, charge at me?" asked Katja. "You don't have a horn in this incarnation. I made sure of that. But you don't remember that, do you?" She darted forward and blessed him with the memory, of a young colt who had stumbled over to a kind woman dressed all in white, and had been loved and cared for before a wickedly-sharp knife had sliced through the spiral horn jutting from his forehead. As he relived this pain, Katja placed her hand over the nub of horn, grinning as an explosive spell raced along his leylines and rendered him a pile of charred unicorn bits on the road. Katja heard the heartbroken scream from inside, and laughed in delight. Now, all she had to do was seek out Alex's other brothers.

But, before she left, Katja plucked the lightning seal out of Tin Can's remains and paid Alex one last visit. It pleased her greatly to see the great warrior rendered powerless, sobbing on her knees in the middle of the kitchen with her family's blood all over her. Katja crouched down in front of her, grinning, and Alex only glared at her, unable to move thanks to the pain of having her soul torn in half.

"Look what you made me do," said Katja. Alex sobbed, and Katja smiled and left the apartment, very pleased with her work. Revenge, as they said, was a dish best served cold, and Katja was the queen of ice.


End file.
